Sunday, March 13th, 2011
Issue: 72   Editor: TheAldarionArmy


Buzz Survey: Results TheAldarionArmy
Earlier in the week, we asked you to participate in a survey about the features of Bootleggers. In return, we awarded every person that answered constructively $100,000 for the small effort. Quite a few people took that opportunity and we want to thank everyone who participated in the survey.

Just in case you missed it: we asked the players from Bootleggers which feature they would like to see changed the most. We asked them to choose from the list below:

  • Missions
  • Kill
  • Organized Crimes
  • Bootlegging
  • Crews
  • Establishment
  • Auto Burglary
  • Casinos
  • Stock Market
  • Jail


Apart from asking them which feature they would like to see changed, we also asked why they would like to see it changed. Some of the replies have been included in this article. All replies in this article are anonymous.

The results are shown below:





Missions
The results show a victory for the missions, with crews being a very close. Although there is something to say for each option listed above, the general feeling was that these two need to be updated. The missions have been here for quite a while, and everyone knows exactly what they are. People know that stopping after the fourth mission is best if they want to preserve bullets. People know that the first mission is annoying because there is never any beer in California. The missions don’t really make a noteworthy contribution to gameplay either, it’s not like they give a huge bonus or advantage to people who do finish them. This all combined seems to be the reason why people would like to see this feature changed most of all. Some of the comments on how it should be changed are shown below:

“A complete wipe of all the current missions. ( They are way too old now) Maybe have multiple outcomes for each new mission, depending on how you chose to do it, equipment etc. There should be a few joint-player missions, so the only way to do these missions are with other users. (Maybe after you have completed all the solo missions.)”

“The mission rewards are minimal compared to the cost, time, and difficulty of "most" if not all of the missions. I would like to see an improvement on the rewards to provide players with much more incentive to do them, OR, different missions which still should hopefully have rewards that can actually be motivational. Perhaps different missions would be a good idea anyway for the simple fact that I think many veteran BL players would just like to see something new in the mission category since everything else has changed so much. If I remember correctly, the missions have pretty much never been altered, although I admit I amy be wrong about that.”

“Would be great that the payout was actually worth the effort instead of gaining like 3,500 bullets in the end of ALL missions completed. A gun reward from the missions that is automatically upgraded so if you got second best weapon you actually get the last weapon, but this should maybe be the final mission so its worth doing.”

“The missions around here have been too long, I believe since 2005 or something. Someone needs to change them, in order to make them more attractive. It's almost impossible to do the first one! In missions, it should be able to take different paths, for example: If you decide to start doing missions, you can take path A, B or C. After that, also A, B or C. Small missions, but attractive so people will try different routes. People can discuss with others what optimal routes are, or just make them random; making them unpredictable.”
“The missions need to be more challenging. Also, I think there need to be like 50+ missions. Every time you die, you start with another mission (shuffle option??). I think that keeps the players interested. Also, make the missions way more difficult. They're too easy now.”

Crews
The second place was for crews, which was also selected by quite a few players. The general feeling is that crews simply aren’t worth it: it’s a hideous expensive extra forum which will get you shot faster than you like to. It simply doesn’t offer enough value for money; there are barely any advantages (apart from the fun part) to being in a crew. Below are some of the opinions and ideas that people posted when it comes to crews:

“I think that value has to be added to crews again. As we can see from the current lack of statistics crews, all being featured on the users online page does is sticks a target on your forehead.
I think that being in a crew needs to offer better protection as well as a lot better integration with other features, for example team missions being able to be completed to gain money for the crew. Or a higher payout being featured in OCs done with crewmates.

The possibilities are endless. Key word- Integration.”

“Make being a crewmember worth more. Now it's just sitting in the crew, chillin' in the Crew Forum. Something like Crew OCs could word out very nice. Some XP points for members and some nice quick cash too! Also Establishments can be useful for crews (i.e make it able for crew(bosses) to build something like a Iron Melt for bullets on an establishment -> You melt your old rusty cars in for bullets).”

“Stats crews should be something people strive to be part of, there should be something with them that makes Stats Crew better to join than an UG crew. Maybe special protection. maybe if the shootouts worked properly, maybe guarantee'd WS. At the moment, stats crew is just spending a huge amount of cash to be a target.”

“I think the Crews feature is useless at the moment b/c the dominating crew chooses which crews the want on the stats. The crews should be changed to gangster+ holder so more people have the chance to hold the crew. Also I think there should be more profit for the crew holder, Maybe by having certain features you can only get by holding a crew like a personal crew bullet factory.”

“Crews are now more of a money spender then a n added feature. I could name a shitload of things but i'll start at the basics. First off, a crew should be stronger. In the early days of the real mafia, it wasn't possible for a simple man to eliminate an entire crew, unless he did a lot of research for like, a year or 2. Furthermore, crews should be features in almost all other features. Crews that manipulate the stocks. Crew OC's, crew bootleggings. Crew Missions, Crew kills and crew bodyguards for the leaders should come in handy. Also, the possibility to add REAL cre ranks as added feature: like, Aldarion: LHM of PZ. Names can be chosen at own wish but all have different features, like the underboss can moderate the forums and kick players, LHM can only moderate the forums and do the scouting for new crew members etc. etc.”

All ideas will be forwarded to the Elite Guard. Some of the suggested changes are very small and easy to change, yet it could have a huge impact. I therefore hope that something will be done with the information as presented above (and in the forwarded document). Feel free to share your thoughts below, and once again: thank you very much for participating!